


Yours

by skysedge



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Bittersweet, F/F, Implied/Referenced Sex, Pining, Post-Canon, Requited Unrequited Love, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27043654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skysedge/pseuds/skysedge
Summary: Josephine isn’t the sort of woman to pine. She has no interest in staring dramatically at the ocean or flinging herself onto a chaise to cry. Instead of the melodrama the pain is a dull ache in her chest, as if part of her heart has stopped beating.
Relationships: Leliana/Josephine Montilyet
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26
Collections: Little Black Dress Flash 2020, femslashficlets: tarot prompt challenge





	Yours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ziskandra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziskandra/gifts).



Josephine leans on the balcony railing and breathes in the warm evening air of Antiva. It’s a beautiful night. The setting sun glimmers on the ocean, rose scent lingers on the breeze, a gentle dance of cooler air across her cheek. There’s a letter and a box of Carastian candies beside her. The letter is crumpled from being read over and over. The box remains unopened. 

It’s the sort of thing, the sort of night, that should be shared with a lover. 

She doesn’t want to be silly. Josephine isn’t the sort of woman to pine. She has no interest in staring dramatically at the ocean or flinging herself onto a chaise to cry. Instead of the melodrama the pain is a dull ache in her chest, as if part of her heart has stopped beating. Even that feels like an excess of emotion for something that shouldn’t bother her much at all. Most days she does just fine. It’s just that the letter is so sweet, so gentle, that tonight she feels the distance more than ever. 

It’s been two years since she last saw Leliana. So much has changed in that time. Gone are the cosy rooms of Skyhold. Now she sleeps in the master bedroom at the Montilyet estate, alone every night instead of just most, and Leliana lives only in letters while Divine Victoria shakes the foundations of the Chantry. Josephine is proud of her, of course. She’s where she’s supposed to be. There was never any reason for either of them to walk any path other than the one they’re on now. But still, but _still..._

Josephine misses her. Her daring smile. Her bright, intelligent eyes. The soft sound of her voice in the early morning, _Josie_ on her reddened lips. Snatched kisses in corridors, unplanned nights in bed, secret picnic dinners high in the rafters of the rookery while the rest of the Inquisition slept. It had been good. No explanations, no questions, just fondness and appreciation, natural tenderness that was as easy to accept as air into her lungs. 

And then it had been over, just like that. It’s impossible to meet in anything other than official circumstances without admitting that it’s something they want, that it’s something worth breaking rules and rank for. 

It’s impossible. For both of them. Their relationship has never been something easily defined and the world shouldn’t be thrown into disarray for something uncertain. Josephine knows that Leliana feels the same without needing to ask. In some ways to ask would be to ruin the whole thing. 

It really is a beautiful evening. Josephine’s fingers tighten on the paper in her hand, creasing it further, smudging the drying tear spots that blur the ink. She gives in to opening it for the dozenth time, reading the last few lines with a bittersweet smile on her lips. She can hear Leliana’s voice as she reads as if her lips are against her ear. 

_Be strong, Josie. I know I don’t need to tell you that. You’re the strongest person I know. Do you remember the day that Cullen found us hiding in the alcove_ _?_ _His face turned so red that even I felt like blushing! But you just smiled and told him his agenda for the day, scolded him for not finishing a report on time, with your hair half-untied and your dress caught in your knickers. If our positions were reversed you’d have brought the whole world to heel by now. Never forget that._

_Yours, L._

_(Don’t share the candies with those thieving sisters of yours. They’re from me to you only.)_

Josephine isn’t the sort of women to pine. The tears fall regardless. She takes a breath and lets it out slowly, takes a silk handkerchief from her pocket and dries her eyes. The sun has sunk below the horizon and with the coming of darkness she feels a little stronger. She tucks the handkerchief back into her pocket, the letter into the front of her dress, and takes the box of candies in hand. 

“As if there was ever any risk of my sharing them,” she says aloud. “What sort of a woman do you think I am?” 

In truth she doesn’t know the answer to that. But she does hope that Leliana thinks of her sometimes whenever she can spare a thought for herself. She hopes that the memories keep her warm when the rest of the world acts so cold. Other than holding these wishes close she knows what else she can do. She can sit on the balcony floor and eat the entire box of candied treats just as Leliana would have wanted. 

And that’s exactly what she does. She feels a little sick after but it’s better than the empty aching of before. She heads to her bed and bundles up in the sheets, sugar on her lips and hope in her heart. 

It’s the sort of thing, the sort of night, that should be shared with a lover. Until such a time arises, Josephine dreams of days long gone. 


End file.
